The night went by swiftly and silently within the Odhinkar longhouse. Not a soul shifted or stirred, as though they were heavy logs weighed down by thick pelt blankets that pinned them in place. Dawn was nearly approaching by the time Manning faintly opened his eyes, resting beside his beloved Sigrid, who rolled over to face him as though on cue to him sitting upright. He gently played with her braids while he exited his blissful dream of wine and honey, and she offered a weak smile before he kissed her forehead and slowly got himself out of bed.
Manning was dressed in his formal traveling gear, which consisted of a brown hooded pullover blouse, dark thick trousers, and leather boots that were strapped with leather and held his tempered steel equipment firmly so as not to jingle or hang loosely. He took his shield from under his bed and put the strap around his shoulder before he approached Primus, whose mouth was agape and leaking a thin line of drool onto his pillow. Manning shook him gently and spoke in a hushed whisper.
"Rise up, Primus. We're leaving in ten minutes."
Primus cringed and inhaled his first waking breath before he weakly opened his eyes, turning over before he was nudged once more by his father. Upon exhaling, Primus wiped his face and slowly sat up, almost afraid to experience the first chill of the early morning. When he uncovered himself from his blanket and sat upright, Primus stared off into space for a moment before he meekly looked up at his father, who looked like he was awake and had body language that spoke of alertness. He wondered how it was possible for anyone to not seem dreary so early in the morning, and he felt like he had a long way to go before he would ever gain the discipline to do so himself. To Primus, it almost seemed inhuman.
After dressing up in his finest and cleanest tunic and trousers, the two would take a hunk of bread, fill their deerskin canteens with fresh water that Lars collected the other day, and make their way outside as quietly as possible. They'd make their way to the stables and greet Sleipnir with a thick carrot before climbing aboard. Primus needed help getting on the massive horse, so his father took him by the arm and hoisted him up and behind him. Manning would take the reins and kick Sleipnir's sides, which got him trotting up the path that led out of the village.
Manning would break the silence after they ate their bread and washed it down with the cool water by obliging Primus with the story which he requested last night. His voice was milky and soothing to Primus's ears, and was loud enough to be heard by anyone within the radius of the galloping horse.
"Our families were both from Norway, which is the cold land of fjords that we left after we met Balder and Mathias Ugelstad. She was from Trondheim and I was from Bergen. We met when her family and the Ugelstads came to my family's dairy farm, the best in the land. You couldn't find fresher milk anywhere else, as my family prided ourselves on quality. Her family even intended to move there for the sake of luxurious convenience.
"The day after they decided to stay, a neighboring chieftain attacked and pillaged the village. Mathias took your mother and I and hid us while Balder and his men fought them off, though not even he could spare the unfortunate slaughter of our families and the destruction of our farm from the wrath of that horrid chieftain. When the last drop of blood spilled and the village was burned to the ground, Balder adopted us and took us with him back to his home, where we would spend the rest of our childhood growing up in the most unusual way. By that time, Balder was in touch with the Crittermen, and we would spend plenty of time learning from them.
"Sigrid was always fond of me, but right at the beginning, I couldn't see her as anything more than a sister. Things were innocent enough early on. We would play just like you and your brothers play with Emika and Mads, learned together, trained together, everything always together. By the time we were of age to think more emotionally, Sigrid took the initiative of asking me to marry her. At this point, when I was 18, we became far more involved and my original disposition dissolved due to a story that I'll save for when you're older. All you need to know now is that we found similar interests and had a similar loss of family, so we grew dependent on one another for emotional and physical strength. We were trained to become Úlfheðnar for the Balderklan, and when we married a few years later, fate brought you and your brothers into our lives, which only further solidified our oaths and destinies into a singular, lifelong duty."
Primus was hugging his father by the waist so he wouldn't fall off the speeding steed, who was covering ground faster than any traditional horse ever could thanks to the Vættirtol saddle. "What was she like as a kid? Was she as energetic as she is now?"
Manning let out a heartfelt chuckle. "Even more so! She was always outgoing and a real people-pleaser, which never died out in her burning heart to this very day. Our chemistry danced well together, to the point where you could consider us fated to suffer from loss in order to meet and create you boys. Odin or what have you, I can't begin to imagine life without her, or how things would be if we separated and weren't adopted by Balder."
"Would I still be me if you met someone else?" Asked Primus suddenly, not restraining his childlike curiosity.
"I doubt it. No, actually. I don't think so at all. You wouldn't be you, but you'd still be alive, I'd imagine. You just wouldn't be the you that you are by mind, body, or spirit. Not to mention, you'd most certainly not be a Chompa."
"That's crazy. I mean, it is a strange thing to think about. I wonder what that means in the grand scheme, being born but not knowing who you could be if things played out differently. I'm glad you found mom, though. Like you said, things wouldn't be the way they are now."
"That sort of thinking only solidified my belief in fate. Things happen for a reason, and always play out exactly as they were destined to. Your destiny, whether you believe it or not, is meant to be. I know of your thoughts from our talks. Emika also tells me of your insecurities whenever you're asleep or out of the house, too."
Primus blushed and buried his face into his father's back. "Oh, man. I mean, it just doesn't feel natural to have pride or confidence in my destiny sometimes. I don't know if I'm cut out for it."
"That's why you're training to be an Úlfhéðinn, and why we need to see to it that you also learn philosophy from the Crittermen when your next birthday comes. You'll be twelve in a month, after all. That is a special number."
"All I can do is do what I'm told."
"Listen, you're not destined to endure the responsibility all on your own. You have your friends and family, and the entire Balderklan behind you to use at your disposal. It only takes the extra initiative to reach out when you need help, albeit easier said than done. I would know. You get your stubbornness from me after all, but just look at where I am now!"
"Yeah. Just look at you." Primus said with a smile. "But still, to be a Chompa. How does it feel to die and be reborn? Is it any different than being only mortal?"
He would think of careful words for his eldest son before they came naturally to him. "Death is never painless. Not for anyone involved. Yours will be similar, but you might find more differences than your mother or I when you transmigrate, since your Drive is more, how you say, interwoven and perfected than ours. That is something we've still yet to teach you, given your age. Your mother hardly wants you to learn, let alone experience death for obvious reasons. As for me? Well, when it comes down to it, when it happens on that fateful day, you'll be ready. Fate will provide all the context for when the time is right."
Primus didn't know how to feel, but decided to just tuck his existential thoughts away for him to unpack later. "Was Balder a good father to you guys?"
Manning rose and lowered his eyebrows with a sigh. "That depends on your definition of 'good'. On one hand, yes, he raised us as properly as any man with obligations ever could. He rose above and beyond the expectations of the traditional father by not being absent or drunk, or physically abusive. He was firm but fair, which is where your mother gets it from. But he meant well. He had set expectations high for all three of us though, especially Mathias. Sometimes being a genuine human being loses the battle against being a man with too many obligations to fulfill. He was distant, emotionally I mean. He didn't treat us like we were his children sometimes, but rather students, which came with its ups and downs. Overall, he was a good man, but an obligated father most of the time."
"Is that why you and mom are so protective and supporting?"
"I'd say so, yes. While we never learned how to Elevate or Descend using the Drives that Mathias made for us, we did take away more lessons than Balder gives himself credit for. How to raise children, how not to be so demanding, and how to instill the good values of being a human being. Without those essentials, how can you possibly begin to understand what it means to be something greater without any humanity?"
Primus meditated on those words carefully. Looking around while he pondered on what to bring up next, he noted the top edge of the sun rising and the temperature getting colder. The sight was majestic, as the marshland and farms off in the distant valleys and hills began casting shadows and illuminated from the touch of an orange sheet. The wind from the speeding horse was mostly being blocked by his sturdy father, but he'd still hug tighter for the extra warmth. He anticipated that once the sun rose a bit more by the time they reached Bamburgh Castle, he'd feel comfortable and less chilly.
"Was Mathias always smart?"
Manning shook his head and laughed sincerely at such a question. "Mathias had it harder than the rest of us from the very beginning. Being a blood son of the illustrious Balder, he was conditioned to learn otherworldly things from a very early age. At first it was all about memorizing and excessive studying, but it quickly came to the point where he was on a whole nother level of intelligence. Scary, smart, and equally illusive, but yes, he was always a cut above the rest in the realm of the mind. Sometimes it made him feel alienated from even your mother and I, but that was just because he knew things we didn't, and still don't know. He could Elevate, we couldn't. He could talk for hours about Crittermen and their technology, we couldn't bear it most of the time. But still, we found plenty of common ground and got along just fine. He will be at the meeting today, so you can ask him all you want about his perspective on all of that."
The rest of the ride went by in the blink of an eye, and when the castle came into view from a distance, Primus couldn't muster more questions even if he wanted to.
Bamburgh Castle. It was unlike any established construct that Primus had ever seen. It sat atop a hill that was worn yet sturdy and green, and was adjacent to the beach, which made it a spot of tactical significance. He wondered so much about how and why it was built that he felt like a foreigner in his own birth land, but would save questions about it for later. He was too enraptured by its grander for words to spill out of his little, uncultured mouth. All he knew was that the Balderklan had seized it from its original owners and constructed a tapestry within its walls to depict the Battle of Hastings, which he was most excited to see firsthand, given all of the familiar faces he would recognize in it; history documented in all of its glory. A history lesson was something he anticipated far more than the meeting of legends that claimed it over ten years ago.
"Holy damn."